External information resources for SCPI

The databases and websites with publications below contain data on agriculture and related social, economic and environmental issues; this includes trade and price information, population statistics and databases with invasive species and protected areas. The list includes only a limited number of databases, and more can be added. If you have information on databases that are not included and would be relevant to sustainable intensification, please send an e-mail to Sustainable-Crop-Production-Intensification@fao.org.

The CBD has identified 17 headline line indicators from seven focal areas for assessing progress towards, and communicating the 2010 target at a global level. Each headline indicator may be made up of a composite of indicators. Many of the biodiversity indicators are fully developed and ready for immediate use at the global scale, whilst others require further development and testing. Although developed principally for global use, a number of the indicators can be used to assess biodiversity trends at regional, national and sub-national scales.

The objective of this website with country profiles is to provide for each country, the most relevant national information related to the Convention on Biological Information and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. This information includes the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action, national websites, status and trends of biodiversity, implementation of the convention and national contacts.

The website of the Convention on Biological Diversity contains a number of interesting databases, such as ABS measures, ABS Capacity Building Projects, Dry and sub-humid lands biodiversity, Impact and Scientific Assessments, Technology Transfer, Adaptation to Climate Change, and the Ecosystem Approach Sourcebook. The Impact Assessment section contains information on Case Studies on Biodiversity and Impact Assessment in different countries. The Scientific Assessments section contains a database of scientific assessments, which can be selected per country.

The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. The reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

The USDA Crop Explorer provides information on crops and conditions by region, satellite images, live data and maps, with links to production estimates, area, yield, and crop assessments. The site gives updates on yield from around the world and the information can also be selected per crop.

This Web site is a companion to the EarthTrends site, launched in 2001 by the World Resources Institute. Inside these pages you will find time-series information for over 500 variables, more than 2000 country profiles, as well as data tables, maps, and feature stories on a variety of environmental, social, and economic topics. The themes include: Coastal and Marine Ecosystems, Climate and Atmosphere, Economics, Business, and the Environment, Biodiversity and Protected Areas, Forests and Grasslands, Water Resources and Freshwater, Population, Health and Well-being, Energy and Resources, Agriculture and Food, and Environmental Governance and Institutions.

ESCORENA Network on the web is a European initiative to enhance sustainable agricultural development and food security by improving the use of information, communication, and associated technologies. The overall aim is to enable ESCORENA members, its partners and users to exchange opinions, experiences, good practices and resources related to agriculture research, and to ensure that the knowledge created is effectively shared and used in the European region and worldwide.

The GEF project database containts all GEF funded projects, which rangs from its Small Grants Programme, to Enabling Activities, Medium-Sized Projects (MSPs), and Full-Sized Projects (FSPs), including the use of the Project Preparation Grant (PPG) to prepare them. The database can be searched for by country and focal area.

This website is a combination of Google Maps and World Bank data and is an easy to use way to find main statistical information about different countries. It includes the country data profile, MDG atlas and information about past and present World Bank projects in the countries.

The GATS is the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service's Global Agricultural Trade System. GATS includes international agricultural, fish, forest and textile products trade statistics dating from the inception of the Harmonized coding system in 1989 to present.

GBIF is an international organisation that is working to make the world's biodiversity data accessible everywhere in the world. GBIF and its many partners work to mobilise the data, and to improve search mechanisms, data and metadata standards, web services, and the other components of an Internet-based information infrastructure for biodiversity. GBIF makes available data that are shared by hundreds of data publishers from around the world. These data are shared according to the GBIF Data Use Agreement, which includes the provision that users of any data accessed through or retrieved via the GBIF Portal will always give credit to the original data

publishers. The database can be searched for by countries and species.

The Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) aims to increase awareness about invasive alien species and to facilitate effective prevention and management activities. The GISD focuses on invasive alien species that threaten native biodiversity and covers all taxonomic groups from micro-organisms to animals and plants in all ecosystems. Species information is either supplied by or reviewed by expert contributors from around the world.

The GlobCover initiative develops and demonstrates a service for the generation of a global land cover map for the year 2005/2006. The service is designed in a way that further updates of the land cover map are possible at recurrent cost to run the developed system. A regionally-tuned classification and the calibration/validation of the classification by a team of regional experts in land cover characteristics will assure the generation of an accurate global land cover map.

The general objective is to provide for the year 2000 a harmonized land cover database over the whole globe. The year 2000 was considered as a reference year for environmental assessment in relation to various activities, in particular the United Nation's Ecosystem-related International Conventions. There are 2 types of product:

1.The Global Land Cover dataset - This is the harmonisation of all the regional products, into a full resolution global product, with a generalised legend.

2.Regional Land Cover datasets - The classification of these windows have been produced by regional GLC2000 partners, with a regionally specific legend, to provide as much detail as possible.

Soil maps are showing the distribution of soils in a given area. The traditional conventional soil map is the end product of a soil survey. The main online providers for soil maps are the ISRIC, FAO and the Joint Research Centre for Soils JRC. The list on this site is a collection of national soil maps with a scale ranging from 1:40 000 to 1:7.5 million. The available maps are in most cases scanned conventional soil maps from the 1950s to 1980s.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is widely recognized as the most comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the conservation status of plant and animal species. The IUCN Red List is underpinned by information management tools (the Species Information Service ) which facilitate the collection, management and processing of species data from workshop to publication on the IUCN Red List. The database can be searched for by taxonomy, location, habitat, systems, threats, assessments and life history.

The ISRIC website contains a section with soil data online. This includes global, regional and national maps, as well as maps selected per theme, such as degradation status, geographic data, and conservation approaches.

The World Market and Trade reports provide the latest analysis and data on a number of agricultural commodities, outlining the current supply, demand and trade estimates both for the United States and for many major foreign countries.

The MDG Monitor shows how countries are progressing in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With the 2015 target date fast approaching, it is more important than ever to understand where the goals are on track, and where additional efforts and support are needed, both globally and at the country level. MDG Monitor Country Profiles are updated once a year with the latest official information from UNDP, obtained in consultation with national governments. The information in each of the MDG Profiles has been gathered in close collaboration with UN Country Teams. Sources include the UNDP Human Development Reports and the UN Statistical Division.

The Foreign Agricultural Service's Production, Supply and Distribution (PSD) online database contains current and historical official USDA data on production, supply and distribution of agricultural commodities for the United States and key producing and consuming countries. This database contains a lot of information (area, yield, and production) of coffee, cotton, dairy, field crops, fruits and vegetables, grains, juice, livestock, oilseeds, poultry, sugar, tobacco and tree nuts.

The System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources (SINGER) is the germplasm information exchange network of the CGIAR centres and its partners. Together, the members of SINGER hold more than half a million samples of crop, forage and tree diversity in their germplasm collections.

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) launched a new internet based data service for the global user community. It brings UN statistical databases within easy reach of users through a single entry point (http://data.un.org/). Users can now search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN system. Useful features like Country Profiles, Advanced Search and Glossaries are also provided to aid research. The numerous databases, tables and glossaries containing over 60 million data points cover a wide range of themes including Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators. Whilst this initial version of UNdata is fully equipped with all the functionalities for data access, the development team is continuously adding new databases and features to further enhance the usefulness to users.

This interactive map collection allows you to search and explore vast amounts of global and regional data through an interactive interface. Make your own custom map or learn more about specific features in the map. The database can be searched for by region, collection and theme.

UNEP-WCMC has been pioneering the delivery of interactive map-based conservation data on the Internet for many years. The Centre's Interactive Map Service (IMapS) has been designed to allow users to create customised maps online to meet their individual information requirements. IMapS can be created for specific regions, incorporating information on environmental sensitivities such as protected areas, breeding areas, species and background information. One of the maps is the World Atlas of Biodiversity.

The Unesco Data Centre allows you to access data and build your own statistical tables related to UNESCO's fields of action. The Data Centre contains over 1,000 types of indicators and raw data on education, literacy, science and technology, culture and communication. The UIS collects the data for more than 200 countries from Member States and international organizations.

The Population Division is responsible for monitoring and appraisal of the broad range of areas in the field of population. It supports the monitoring of the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals by producing three indicators under the target of universal access to reproductive health, namely the contraceptive prevalence rate, the adolescent birth rate and the unmet need for family planning (the latter in collaboration with UNFPA). Other data includes World Contraceptive/Marriage/Fertility data, population ageing and development.

The Statistics Division is committed to the advancement of the global statistical system. The UN Statistical Commission is the apex entity of the global statistical system. It considers and approves international statistical standards and programmes to address emerging issues. The website of the UN Statistical Division brings the UN statistical databases together at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/databases.htm (social, economical, trade and more).

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have formed a partnership on the MDGs, bringing together three major multilateral development agencies to strengthen regional efforts in developing the MDG agenda in Asia and the Pacific. More info can be found on http://www.mdgasiapacific.org/

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) have generated a 1-km resolution global land cover characteristics data base for use in a wide range of environmental research and modeling applications. The global land cover characteristics database was developed on a continent-by-continent basis.

This database is part of WorldWatch Institute and provides business leaders, policymakers, and engaged citizens with the latest data and analysis they need to understand critical global trends. Global trends that are being studies is divided in different themes: energy & transportation, environment & climate, food & agriculture, global economy & resources, and population & society. Subscription is required to access all trends.

This website contains links to the four main databases that the WHO has: WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) - National statistics for 70 core indicators on mortality, morbidity, risk factors, service coverage, and health systems- , WHO Global InfoBase Online, Global Health Atlas (Standardized data and statistics for infectious diseases at country, regional, and global levels) and the Regional statistics

Country profiles are drawn from the World Development Indicators (WDI) database—the World Bank's primary are drawn from the World Development Indicators (WDI) database—the World Bank's primary database for cross-country comparable development data.

The Data Visualizer has the option to create charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users.

The World Development Indicators (WDI) 2009 is the statistical benchmark that helps measure the progress of development. The WDI provides a comprehensive overview of development drawing on data from the World Bank and more than 30 partners. The World Development Indicators (WDI) publication is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. The 2009 WDI includes more than 800 indicators in over 90 tables organized in 6 sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. It is also possible to access WDI & GDF Online for data.

The World Database on Protected Areas is a foundation dataset for conservation decision making. It contains crucial information from national governments, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, international biodiversity convention secretariats and many others. It is used for ecological gap analysis, environmental impact analysis and is increasingly used for private sector decision-making. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the most comprehensive global spatial dataset on marine and terrestrial protected areas available. The WDPA is a joint project of UNEP and IUCN, produced by UNEP-WCMC and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas working with governments and collaborating NGOs.

This database contains information on forests, marine and coastal areas, freshwater, rivers, lakes and wetlands, climate change and global warming, and sustainability issues. The website contains a large number of publications, but also fact sheets and databases are available.